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League Match: Donaghadee 51 - 13 R.U.C. (2/10/99)

"DONAGHADEE ARREST THE RUC

Donaghadee kicked off last Saturday at the Newtownards Road grounds with a threat of rain in the air. Fresh off a big victory over Holywood, they were hoping they could tackle the RUC team with the same elan. The policemen have given Donaghadee a tough game a few times in recent seasons, but their own new found form gave the men from the Dee great confidence.

It was not long after the start that the running abilities of the team produced their first score. A strong burst through the midfield by Matt Duff led to an intricate passing movement which included both forwards and backs. Eventually this penetrating move released Sharn Christianson who took no second invitation to finish it. This route one approach by the Donaghadee hooker seemed to infect prop Ian Welch, whose long charge at the police line was only brought to a halt just in front of the posts by one of the tacklers commiting a penalty offence. Paul Blewitt's kick clicked the score up to 10-0.

The ability to involve the whole team in total rugby was soon demonstrated once again with a beautifully constructed move which was only stopped just short of the RUC line. The loose ball was knocked forward by a strong arm of the law, and from the resulting scrum some slick passing with miss-moves included, stretched the defence so much that Peter Gray had little to do to finish it far out on the right. Blewitt kicked a magnificent conversion to make the score 17-0.

The end to end inter-passing continued to delight the spectators. In what most thought was the move of the game, the play went up and down the field, first in an attack by the visitors, and then with a counter-attack in which the ball must have gone through at least ten sets of Donaghadee hands finishing with a fine score by Nigel Forsythe, who had supported the move throughout its length.

All this cavalier style attacking is wonderful to watch, but it must not allow teams to neglect their organised defence. The RUC had taken a man off with an injury around this time, and this plus their nil scoreline bred a dangerous complacency in the home side. Just after RUC kicked off again, they kicked an innocuous looking ball up the touchline. But more of them showed urgency about chasing it than Donaghadee did. Almost inevitably it was an RUC player who got the touch and Donaghadee's clean sheet was sullied. The visitors moved a little closer with a penalty soon after and the teams turned round with the score 24-8 in Donaghadee's favour.

The new half saw the RUC restored to fifteen players, but more importantly for the Donaghadee supporters, with the attention of their own side now totally focussed on the task in hand. Paul Blewitt got good quick ball from a ruck on his own 22 metre line, made a searing break to run about forty yards, and then sent Christianson on an intricate fifty yard dash to score another good try. This was quickly followed by two lovely individualist tries, both opening up the defence with dummies. One was from full-back Andy Monson making his last club appearance before a temporary farewell to continue his studies, and the other was Paul Blewitt sending the defenders the wrong way and going in under the posts.

Rather disturbingly the Dee men had another little doze at this point and allowed RUC to take a quick free kick and score a soft-looking try. Donaghadee made immediate amends for their lapse with a clever kick and chase down the left which resulted in a good try by David McMinn. This completed the scoring, making a final total of 51-15 to Donaghadee, and most importantly two more league points."